Teachers and their students have a rather ironic relationship when you think about it. On the one hand, teachers are given the responsibility of enforcing the academic standards of the classroom. They are the ones who test the students and evaluate them, and ultimately they are the ones who give the students a grade.
            But on the other hand, teachers are also the ones who give their students the most help to meet the academic standards of the classroom. They are their students’ greatest resource and biggest supporters at the school. So at the very same time, teachers are enforcing the standards and giving their students the most help in meeting those standards. That’s kind of ironic, don’t you think?
            In a similar way, we also see this irony in prayer. God, of course, is the one whom we pray to, asking him to hear our appeals, but as we are going to learn today, he is also the one who gives us the most help in prayer. So as we make our appeals to him, he is – at the very same time – the one who gives us the most help in offering our prayers.
            Today we will see how the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each work in various ways to encourage us to pray and to help us overcome the general weakness that hounds us as we journey through a fallen world. We can be very encouraged today to see just how much God assists us so that we might pray!
 
We will look at each of the members of the Trinity in turn.
 
1. The Father draws us into prayer through His kindness
            To see this truth, we can review some of what we learned last week in Matthew 6:7-8. In those verses, Jesus contrasted the way that the Gentiles prayed with the way that we should pray. The Gentiles had no particular reason to think that their gods cared about them, but we enjoy a very different relationship with our God. He is actually our father, as Jesus reminds us in verse eight, and when we remember how he sent his own son to die for us so that he might forgive us and adopt us as his own children, we have reason to believe that God’s ears are open to our prayers because of the kindness of his heart.
            So when my mind says, “Do you really think God will care about what I pray?”, my spirit can say, “Yes, because I am his child, and he has shown such a great love to create this relationship.” So God’s kind love draws us to pray to him by convincing us that he cares and that he really will consider what we have to say.
 
Since we spent a little more time on that last week, let’s move on now to see how the Son helps us in prayer.
 
2. The Son leads us into prayer through His sympathy and intercession
            To learn more about this truth, I’d like you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews. If you’ve ever wondered, “What is Jesus up to right now?”, the book of Hebrews tells us about one of his present-day activities. In the early chapters of this book, we learn that Jesus is in heaven serving as our high priest before the Father. That is a very rich image from the Old Testament, but today we might be a little more familiar with the idea of an ambassador or advocate – someone who represents our interests in the presence of an authority figure.
            This is one way in which Jesus is helping us right now. Notice how Hebrews 2:14-18 describes this [READ Heb 2:14-18]. Jesus knows what it’s like to deal with the weakness of a human body. He understands the temptation to be grouchy when you haven’t had enough sleep, or to be impatient when someone makes one more request of you after you’re already worn out. He understands these things because he has been through them, too.
            The author of Hebrews picks up this theme again in 4:14-16 [READ 4:14-16]. How wonderful that Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses! He has been through the same struggles that we’ve faced, so he can serve as a merciful advocate. This should give us great encouragement to pray to God.
            Don’t we all find ourselves less than enthusiastic sometimes to talk to people who haven’t been through the things we’ve been through? We don’t feel very eager to talk to someone when we think that they just can’t understand what we’ve experienced. We may still labor through a conversation, but it’s likely to be hindered because of those feelings.
            Sometimes as we walk through life in this fallen world and we consider prayer, we find ourselves thinking, “What does God know about pain and suffering? He’s way off, somewhere up there in heaven being worshiped by angels. How could he really understand what I’m going through?”
            It is for that very reason that the Bible reminds us about the experiences and sufferings of the Lord Jesus and tells us that he is right there in the presence of the Father to sympathize with us and to intercede for us.
            Consider the variety of hardships that Jesus faced in his life, and consider if he can understand what you have been through. He likely lived in a level of poverty that none of us has ever experienced. If our historical research today is correct, he grew up in a home that was carved out of a cave – literally a hole in the ground! Every one of us lives in great comfort compared to that!
            Also, from the biblical story, we have very good reason to think that Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, died during Jesus’ lifetime. Jesus would know, then, what it is like to feel the grief of losing a parent.
            Jesus also knows what its like to be misunderstood and opposed by your own family. We read a couple of times in the Gospels that his brothers thought he was crazy and tried to bring him back home from preaching all over the countryside.
            Jesus knows what it is like to live under the heavy hand of an oppressive government; he knows what it is like to pay unfair taxes; he knows what it is like to receive injustice at the hands of a judicial system; he knows what it is like to be stolen from; he knows what it’s like to be betrayed by your best friend; he knows what it’s like to face public humiliation.
            Do you remember that he even knows what it’s like to feel abandoned by God? As he bore our sins on the cross, there was that fateful moment when Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Perhaps in that moment, Jesus felt the full weight of the Father’s anger toward sin. He would know what it’s like, then, to feel that God Himself is opposed to you.
            And let us not forget what the author of Hebrews emphasized—Jesus has experienced every kind of temptation that we have. So when we speak to God in prayer, we know that we have a great high priest in Jesus Christ—an advocate who truly understands what we’re going through because he’s been there. Since God did not remain distant from the pain of this world but stepped down into it and experienced it, he is sympathetic toward our needs and is able to commiserate with us.
 
3. The Holy Spirit helps us in prayer to overcome our weakness
            In Romans 8, we learn about an incredible ministry that the Holy Spirit performs to help us in prayer. Beginning in Romans 8:18, the Apostle Paul discusses the tension that we feel between the sufferings of this present time and the glory that awaits us as children of God. According to Paul, the glory that is to be revealed is incomparable, but at the present time our souls ache and groan because we live under the curse of sin.
            Our natural limitations as creatures are only exaggerated by the effects of sin on our bodies and our minds, and so in this sense we live in a general state of weakness. Should we despair, then, because of our weakness? No—just look here at verse 26: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought.”
            Now, I don’t believe Paul is saying, “Shame on you! You should know better than to ask for the things you ask for.” No, I think he’s saying that we cannot always know what to pray for. We pray according to the best of our knowledge, but our knowledge is limited. Sometimes this life can be so disorienting that we don’t even know where to begin when we speak to God. We don’t know whether to ask for this or to ask for that.
            There’s certainly nothing wrong with praying for the things we desire to have come about, but in our limited knowledge, we just don’t know exactly what God’s plan will be. Before I ever met Carmen, I spent a whole summer praying that a certain girl would become my wife. We were good friends, and I’d heard from some mutual friends that she was interested in me, so I had some high hopes. During that summer, I can remember frequently taking walks in the evening, praying that God would bring us together and anticipating what that would be like, because I had high confidence that God would grant my request.
            Well, when the school year started up, we reconnected and re-kindled our friendship. After about three weeks, I asked her out on a date, and would you know that I didn’t even get one date with that girl? She politely declined, and I asked her if this was a “no” for now or a “no” for good, and she said it was a “no” for good.
            I couldn’t believe it! I had prayed about it for months, and I thought it would be a great match, but God declined that request because he had a different plan in mind.
            Now, I didn’t know that, and I couldn’t have known that, so should we just give up on prayer, then, because of this confusion? No, we can offer our prayers and trust in what the Spirit will do for us. Continued reading in v. 26—“but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
            Just think of this grace and sympathy—the Holy Spirit supplements our prayers to bring them into accord with the will of God. He speaks up for us even when we don’t know what to say, or when we might say something amiss.
            Since I’ve had children, I’ve come to learn that I can often understand what they’re trying to say even when other people can’t. I know how they say things and when they might mix up certain words, so if they’re talking to someone else and not getting through, I can usually step in and say, “Here’s what they were trying to say.”
            Perhaps that’s how we should think of the Holy Spirit’s help for us. As we struggle to communicate our desires to God or the depths of our grief, the Holy Spirit intercedes and says, “Here’s what they’re really trying to say.”
            If I could put all of God’s help for us in prayer into one picture, I think it would look like this—the Father stands out in front of us, calling us through kindness to come to him in prayer. As he calls, Jesus stands beside us and takes us by the arm, saying, “Yes! I’ve been where you are. This is the right step to take. Go to him and you’ll find mercy and grace.” Behind us, with a hand on our shoulder, ready to steady us, is the Holy Spirit, saying, “Go ahead. Don’t worry—I’ll help you!”
            Though we appeal to God in prayer, he is the very one who gives us the most help for our prayers. So don’t decline his kind-hearted call to ask, seek, and knock. Don’t think that he can’t understand, because Jesus can—and He does! Don’t worry if you’re not entirely settled on what to say, because the Holy Spirit will help you. Let us take advantage of this great outpouring of help from the Lord.
​

​            To Christians, it seems that our federal government is wading into some strange waters these days. Particularly in the areas of gender and sexuality, our government is increasingly asking us to treat as acceptable certain behaviors that we would deem to be sinful on the basis of the word of God. On these issues, our government’s moral compass seems to be pointing due south as the Bible points us due north.
            It’s interesting to me that some of the occupations that have been on the frontlines of all of this are represented right here in our own congregation. Florists have had to consider whether or not they would make floral arrangements for a same-sex wedding ceremony, and we have a florist right here in our own congregation. Bakers have had to consider whether or not they would bake cakes for such ceremonies, and right here in our own church we have a young lady who bakes cakes. Most recently, educators have been thrust onto the frontlines, and we have several teachers and administrators among us.
            For that reason and others, the question we’re going to discuss today is highly relevant for all of us. How do we live under a government that has a faulty moral compass? More specifically, how do we respond when our government asks us to do things that we may find objectionable?
            Fortunately for us, we find many principles and examples in the Bible of just how to do this, because many characters in Scripture found themselves living under governments that had a faulty moral compass. In the Old Testament, Israel found itself at times under the leadership of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, and Persia. Every one of those governments had a faulty moral compass. In the New Testament, every character we encounter was in that situation because they were all subjects of the Roman Empire.
 
So what do we learn from them? How should we respond when our government asks us to do things that we may find objectionable?
 
1. Look for creative solutions, and suggest them with humility.
            In Daniel 1, we read about Daniel and his friends having just been taken captive from Israel to Babylon. They were placed into a training program that was meant to prepare them to become officials in the government of the Empire. They immediately faced a moral dilemma however, because the diet they were given did not meet the dietary standards of the Law of Moses that the Jewish people were given to follow.
            But Daniel came up with a creative solution for this conflict [READ Dan. 1:8-13]. Daniel’s creative thinking here is a great example for us. In the panic that we often feel when we find ourselves in a moral dilemma, it is easy for us to think that we may only have two choices available. In reality, there could be a third or even a fourth choice that would solve the problem in a way that would not violate our conscience. So when you’re considering how to respond, a little creativity can go a long way.
            Let’s make sure we don’t overlook the fact that when Daniel suggested his creative solution, he did so with great humility. He didn’t resort to a more coercive technique like a hunger strike; rather, he requested permission to try out a certain approach for a certain period of time. And he continued to respect the authority of his superior—he acknowledged that at the end of the ten days, the steward could decide to do as he saw fit.
            So Daniel continued to submit to the governing authorities even as he offered his suggestion. Along with that continued submission comes our second principle.
 
2. Be willing to accept the consequences of your actions.
            If you cannot obey what you have been asked to do, you should be willing to accept whatever consequences that you may have to face. Daniel set that example when he told the steward that he could do as he pleased after the ten-day trial period was done. His friends also set that example in Daniel 3 when they refused to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol. Notice what they said to the king when they were called out for their disobedience [READ Dan. 3:16-18]. They knew full well that God could deliver them if He chose to do so, but if He chose not to, they were willing to face the consequences.
            The apostles set the same example in the Book of Acts when they were arrested for preaching the Gospel. They didn’t fight in order to resist arrest, nor did the other disciples organize an attempted jail break. The Apostle Paul put it simply in Acts 25:11 when he said, “If I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death.”
            So, even if we cannot obey a law that the government has made, we must still obey the government’s authority to enforce the law that it has made. If we choose to disobey that law, then we must be willing to accept the consequences.
 
3. Understand the role of your conscience and respect it.
            With some of the questions we are facing today, the proper response is debatable. For example, if a bakery receives a cake order for a same-sex wedding, is it wrong for the bakery to fill that order? The answer to that question is not cut-and-dried, so for that reason, mature Christians could disagree over the proper response.
            In these situations, your own conscience will play a large role in your decision—and it should! Your conscience is a God-given part of you that prods you to do what you believe is right. Notice that I did not say it tells you what is right. Your conscience can be misinformed, under-developed, or even dull if you have ignored it for too long.
            So your conscience is not an infallible guide to what is right and wrong, but nevertheless, we should respect the role that God means for it to play in our lives. In Romans 14, Paul wrote to the believers in Rome about a difference of opinion that they had about their freedom to eat certain foods or drink certain drinks. At the end of the chapter, Paul states that it is actually a sin for you to violate your own conscience on a disputed matter like this [READ Rom. 14:20-23].
            The principle that Paul lays out here is that it is a sin for you to do something if you are not convinced that that act is acceptable to God. Even if another believer feels free to do that act, you must not do it unless you are fully convinced in your own mind. God gave you your conscience for an important reason, and you should respect the role that God intends for it to play in your life.
 
Now, because of the possibility of disagreement among Christians on some of these questions comes our next principle.
 
4. Extend grace to Christians who choose a response that differs from yours
            Since the proper response to some of these situations is debatable, we should not fight with or reject those who choose a response that is different from our own. As we face increasing pressure and even opposition from outside of the church, we need more than ever to seek increased unity within the church.
            Some of our Christian brothers and sisters have faced crushing fines and the loss of income for following the dictates of their conscience. If that happened in our own midst, it would be terrible for us to turn away from fellow Christians simply because we might have chosen a different response to that debatable matter.
            Paul deals with this principle as well in Romans 14. In verses 10-12, he writes [READ Rom. 14:10-12]. We can certainly discuss these matters with tact and love, and we can even try to persuade one another to see the matter in a different light if we think it’s necessary, but let us not condemn each other or reject each other if we cannot come to a unanimous opinion about these situations.
 
5. Use legal means of resistance first, and do so with great care and wisdom
            Choosing to break a law should never be a decision that we rush into. If we have some legal ways of resolving the situation, we would be wise to consider those first. For example, if you find yourself in a dilemma like this in your workplace, you may have some resources through your union or you may have a provision in your contract about arbitration that would allow you to get a third party involved in the matter.
            In our country, we do also have the option of taking the matter to court if we feel that our legal rights have been violated. So for example, if you were wrongfully terminated from your job because you took a stand on your conscience, you could take that matter to court. That is a decision that still requires a lot of care and wisdom, and in the end you may decide that it is not worth the time and the expense that would be required for you to take that step.
            So, if we do have some legal avenues of resolving the situation, we should consider all of them first before choosing to break a law. And since our study today has grown out of our study of 1 Peter, we should remember Peter’s reminder in 1 Peter 2:11 that we are sojourners and exiles in this world. If we find our rights not being fully respected in a place that isn’t our real homeland, we shouldn’t be surprised, nor should we allow fighting for our rights to become our highest passion and goal.
            We are followers of Jesus Christ – our highest passion and goal must always be to fulfill the Great Commission by making disciples of all the nations. If we choose to defend our rights in court, we must not do so only for the desire to hang on to all of our personal property or to keep America a comfortable place for Christians to live. Those are merely nice fringe benefits in life – they are not our highest passion and goal.
 
6. Think in advance about what your "line" is in the context of your own life
            Where is the line that you simply could not cross? At what point would you have to say, “I cannot go any further with what I’m being asked to do!” Now, each of us may face different situations because of our occupations or other personal factors. No one is ever going to ask me to bake a cake for their wedding, so I don’t really have to think about a situation like that except perhaps to be ready with some advice and counsel for someone who might ask me about it.
            But I am a pastor, so what if the government started to give me more regulations about what I could and could not say from the pulpit? The government already tells me that I cannot endorse a political candidate from the pulpit, and I’m fine with that because frankly, I have more important things to talk about than Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton! But what if they started to give me more regulations about my preaching? Where would I draw the line?
            In the context of your own life, it’s important to think about this question in advance, because when the pressure is on it is far too easy to just cave into it if you don’t have your convictions firmly in mind beforehand. Now of course, it is very difficult to predict some of the situations that we may have to face. I’m sure we can’t anticipate all of them, but with a biblical worldview established in our minds and with principles like these that we’ve discussed today, we can be prepared to chart a course that will be faithful to God even when those in authority over us are not.

​            Sometimes in life, you can have so much of a good thing that you fail to appreciate any one individual part of it. I think that’s what it can feel like sometimes to read Romans 12. Romans 12 contains so many profound lessons for the Christian life, and it gives us these lessons at a nearly break-neck speed. In verses nine through 21 in particular, the Apostle Paul peppers us with one brief yet profound command after another.
            It can be difficult to appreciate them all, so today I want to hit the pause button and focus on just one, which we find in the second half of verse 10 – “Outdo one another in showing honor.” Now perhaps you’re thinking, “Where did you just read from, Pastor Tim?” If you were following along in a different translation as I read, then you surely noticed that your translation may have used rather different words than mine. Notice the differences between these common translations:
·         ESV: “Outdo one another in showing honor.”
·         NKJV: “…in honor giving preference to one another.”
·         NASB: “give preference to one another in honor.”
·         NIV: “Honor one another above yourselves.”
·         NLT: “…take delight in honoring each other.”
 
            If you ponder the meaning of those phrases – like “giving preference” or honoring one another “above yourselves” – you end up with a very similar picture. But I’d like to unpack this wording from the English Standard Version: “Outdo one another in showing honor.”
            At first, it probably sounds funny to think of “outdoing” each other in something like showing honor, as though we’re actually competing with each other as to how well we’re living out biblical commands. But rest assured, we are not talking about some strange competition here.
            The idea of the Greek verb is that of taking the lead in something; being out front. If we think of honor as showing appreciation and esteem, I think we have a pretty good paraphrase for this command – “take the lead in showing appreciation and esteem.” Now how exactly would you take the lead in something like showing appreciation to others? I think we could apply this thought in a couple of ways.
 
1. Don’t lag behind!
            We don’t want to pass up opportunities to show appreciation to each other when those opportunities present themselves. The opposite of showing appreciation is probably being ungrateful, and that’s a character trait that we certainly don’t want to embody in our lives. When you express appreciation, you’re letting someone know how much they mean to you or how thankful you are for something that they did for you. We don’t want to pass up opportunities like that because it’s the right thing to do – not to mention that such gestures can go a long way in building a great friendship with someone.
            We certainly don’t want to have the reputation of being ungrateful. It’s my understanding that in the service industry, Christians have a reputation of being very stingy in giving tips. I have no idea where that stereotype came from, and I have no idea how true to life it is, but I think we all agree that we want to have the reputation of being generous people – people who show appreciation when acts of service are performed for us.
            I believe this thought also sheds some helpful light on the Christian concept of duty. When I think about serving God or even serving you, it’s appropriate for me to think to a certain degree about fulfilling a duty. I think ultimately we want our motivation for service to go beyond duty to delight (in other words, I serve God and others because I delight to do so) but nevertheless, the reality of our duty to God is there to push us along even when we don’t delight to do what we should.
            But when someone else serves me, I shouldn’t think just in terms of that person doing their duty. In other words, I don’t want to camp out on the thought that says, “I expect other people to serve me – after all, that’s their duty as a Christian!” Let them worry about their duty to God – on your part, you should view their service as a gift and thus be thankful for it and express that appreciation.
            I hope we do a good job of this as a church toward all of you who volunteer in various ways, but if we’ve never made our appreciation known to you, please accept my apologies and know that your contributions are not overlooked. We consider your service to be a gracious gift to us all. Please pray for the leadership of our church that we, too, would be faithful to carry out this command and express appreciation when it is due.
 
A second way that we could apply this command would be to…
 
2. Take the initiative – don’t simply respond to the initiative of others.
            One of the hallmarks of Christian behavior is that it is proactive, not reactive. In other words, I am not supposed to treat you merely in the same way that you treat me, so that if you treat me poorly, I will treat you poorly in return. Rather – and we all know this from the Golden Rule – I am supposed to treat you the way that I would want you to treat me – whether you actually treat me that way or not!
            So if a person has never shown appropriate appreciation to you, you don’t have to let that fact stop you from showing appreciation and esteem to them. Now of course, I’m not talking about flattery here. I’m not talking about twisting or exaggerating the truth – I’m talking about situations when appreciation and esteem are actually deserved. When they are, express that! Don’t let a good thing go unsaid when it should be said.
            We so often miss out on the life-giving power of encouraging words because we leave them unsaid. You might often think about how much you appreciate someone and you might often think very highly of them, but how often do you express that to them? Again, I’m not talking about flattery, I’m really just talking about faithfulness – faithfulness to obey the command just like this one here in Romans 12:10. Faithfulness to take the lead in showing appreciation – not simply to return such expressions when they are given to you, but to be the one who will plant life-giving seeds for the soul through words of appreciation, gratitude, and thankfulness.
            We of all people should be known as a grateful people because we know that every good thing we have is a gift from God. We know to give our appreciation and esteem to him – let’s make sure we don’t fail to give the same to the people who bring God’s good gifts to us through their service.